Albany Running Exchange 3rd Annual Frun Run Day – March 10th

Guest blog – Josh Merlis, ARE
The Albany Running Exchange is a local running club that began in 2002 and has always had a focus on using technology to bring runners together. The presence of the word “Exchange” in our name was chosen, in part, because of our desire to provide an online portal for runners to find other runners.

Each year, more features were added to the website; in 2005, members were able to post their own runs to a calendar fully describing what the type of run would be. After a year of not knowing if anyone was actually going to attend their run, we added a sign-up feature that enabled each run to generate its own roster along with chat board. At that point, a person could view the list of runs and also sign-up for ones they wanted to attend. It made it a lot more useful for the poster to know who planned to join.

In the years that followed, we added more search features, event “types” (particularly with a focus for those training for triathlon), and also the ability for members of the club to receive email and/or text notifications when events are posted or if there are messages regarding an event they are attending.

In early 2010, a few members of the Albany Running Exchange were discussing ways in which to further encourage club members to utilize the website, along with create a special “one day” event that would truly celebrate the frun of communal running. And with that, Group FRUN Day was born. The purpose of the event was to encourage club members to both utilize the members page to post their own run and/or to sign-up for runs posted by other club members. In short, we wanted to get everyone out there running.

We had 144 club members participate, running a total of 1,142 miles. Many participants attended multiple runs, including Ryan Walsh who somehow made it to 8 that day! We encouraged all members to post/attend runs regardless of where they were – and in addition to the majority of events in the general Capital District, runs were posted in CA, DC, FL, and MA.

The city of Albany ended up passing a resolution (#41.41.10R) naming March 13, 2010 as “FRUN DAY” in the city of Albany. While we didn’t ask for this, it definitely was pretty neat to get a phone call from them indicating that they wanted to acknowledge our efforts to get people up and moving.

Group FRUN Day 2011 was another great day with decent weather for the over two hundred who participated.

This Saturday, March 10, 2012, marks the third year of the event. Already over 30 runs are posted with over 150 participants signed up to take to the streets and trails, parks and plazas for another enjoyable day of group running.

Any and all are invited to join in the frun of the day! Many attendees plan to participate in many of the runs, and some members of the ARE have posted runs from “house to house” that culminate in parties with food and festivity. It is not necessary to be a member of the club to join in – all that we ask is that if you attend a run, you bring a smile and an openness to make a new friend.

Runs of all distances and paces are posted, so definitely don’t be intimidated if you feel that you may not be ready for a group run.